Strategic and Tactical Excellence That Delivers Results
By Bill Romanelli, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs The environmental standards of 100 years ago were, well… nonexistent. Today’s best practices were hardly a thought in 1921 when crude oil was stored in open pits, manufactured gas was still powering lamps across the country, and the real boom in aircraft, munitions and rocket production was […]
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Bill has more than 25 years’ experience representing companies, trade associations, industry coalitions and nonprofits seeking to tell their side of the story on a variety of local, state and federal issues. He specializes in helping clients develop the right messages and strategies to identify and recruit allies, speak credibly and persuasively to a variety of stakeholder audiences and work productively with the media. His expertise in strategic communications, issues management, digital advocacy, stakeholder engagement and advocacy, community outreach and media relations makes him a valuable addition to the FSB Public Affairs team.
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Miranda Pinto joined the FSB team as our Administrative Services Director. Miranda brings nearly 15 years of experience in administrative management which includes finances, human resources, employee development, and office management.
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Over the past 20 years, John has played important roles on political, public affairs and corporate social responsibility campaigns across the country and internationally including helping to pioneer domestic and international digital advocacy strategies for foreign governments, Fortune 100 companies and international nonprofit organizations. Most recently, John was a managing director leading the public affairs practice for Group SJR, a New York digital strategy firm owned by WPP. Previously, he ran the Washington D.C. office for the California Department of Education, advised legislative leadership on policy and political strategy and lobbied for the California Chamber of Commerce.
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Nancy is a Senior Account Executive based in our Sacramento office. An integral part of public education and campaign teams, she is skilled in social media strategy and coordination, earned media programs, stakeholder engagement, media relations and event management.
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Julie is an Assistant Account Executive with FSB in our southern California office, predominantly working within our Public Relations and Public Affairs Practice Areas. She assists with communication efforts, content production and general public relations projects, as well as assists with the firm’s marketing efforts.
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Betty has six years of combined experience working with the Latino community in a variety of projects ranging from news production, grass roots and community outreach, campaign awareness, and social media management. She has been an essential connection between companies and the community, and often times, Betty has served as the official Spanish language spokesperson for in-camera interviews. Betty has also created communications’ plans for OCTA to reach diverse audiences and has collaborated on their outreach efforts.
Prior to her work with FSB, Betty worked at VPE Public Relations with the LA County Department of Public Health on their campaign “Champions for Change,” an initiative to create awareness about healthier food options, and La CLAVE, a mental health outreach campaign founded by the University of Southern California (USC).
Relevant Experience
• Ford Latino- Communications Manager for the LA region
• OCTA I-5 Central Improvement Project- Diversity outreach coordinator
• OCTA Express Lanes- Communications specialist
• Champions for Change- Account Coordinator
• La Clave- Assistant Account Executive
• Telemundo 52- Associate Producer Internship
Community Involvement
• Treasurer and Founding Board Member, Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA)/Orange County Chapter
• Member, National Latina Business Women Association-Los Angeles (NLBWA-LA)
• Member, Latino Communications Institute at Cal State Fullerton
Education
• Bachelor of Arts, Communications/Public Relations, California State University, Fullerton
• Minor, Human Communications
Alex Burrola possesses over 20 years of experience in political campaigns, government relations and public affairs. Based in the firm’s Southern California office, Alex is an integral member of FSB’s Public Affairs practice. Serving in a leadership capacity for many of the firm’s key public affairs and political clients, Alex’s coalition building, grassroots mobilization, and communications strategies have been essential to the success of FSB’s clients.
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Frank Rizzo is President of FSB Public Affairs. He has over twenty-five years of political and public affairs experience and has led grassroots public affairs campaigns in over forty states and Canada. He is an expert at developing and managing grassroots campaigns to influence legislative, regulatory, and policy decisions at the federal, state, and local level for corporate and trade association clients. Frank has also managed various ballot and independent expenditure campaigns around the country. Frank has worked some of the country’s largest companies on wind and solar energy projects, cannabis issues, waste facilities, and mixed-use and commercial developments. His experience with community outreach extends to projects involving NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act), FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), and CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act), as well as many state and local environmental regulations around the country.
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Frank spent fifteen years working on political campaigns throughout the country at all levels including presidential campaigns, congressional races, legislative and county races. He has also worked for some of the country’s leading political consulting firms producing television, radio, and direct mail advertisements.
Community Involvement:
East Bay Leadership Council
Impact Diablo Valley, Founding Member
Public Affairs Council
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Based in our Sacramento office, Caitlin serves as a Finance and Office Assistant. In that capacity she helps with various financial services support functions as well as general administrative duties.
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Jerry serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the firm. Based in Orange County, Jerry serves as General Manager of the Orange County office and leads business development efforts throughout the southern California region. Jerry possesses nearly 40 years of real estate and land use law, business and corporate law, political and government experience.
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Just named #1 public relations firms by fee income on the Sacramento Business Journal’s Top Public Relations List, Cherri has been one of the firm’s three owners since 2012. She has managed day-to-day efforts and multi-million dollar budgets on behalf of a number of statewide and local initiative and referendum campaigns, Fortune 500 companies, local government agencies, non-profit organizations and associations.
Since 2012 she has lead the firm’s Latino Outreach and Spanish-Language team. Assimilating to the language and culture through study and living abroad, Cherri has spent much of her career developing and implementing culturally appropriate strategies for her clients. Her extensive experience and sage counsel makes her the go-to choice for clients seeking to deliver their messages to the Latino community.
Her record of success coupled with her unique collaborative approach to ballot initiative campaigns and traditional corporate public affairs programs has earned her a national reputation for being an intentional, strategic leader and a masterful tactical implementor. Cherri’s passion, dedication and vivacious spirit makes her a client favorite.
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Salwa brings with her experience working in supervisory accounting positions for both non-profit and for-profit organizations. Based in our Sacramento office, Salwa is responsible for the day-to-day financial and administrative functions within our Association Management Practice.
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Mayra Vega is a Senior Account Supervisor with more than eight years of experience in community outreach and multicultural communications. She has strategically led and managed campaigns and programs for nonprofit, private, public and local government organizations. Her experience spans across a variety of industries including automotive, transportation, utility, tourism, hospitality, and food and beverage. Through research and strategic planning, she has helped her clients make an impact on their communities while building long-lasting relationships with those they serve.
Previously, Mayra was a Communications Specialist at the City of Anaheim in the Public Utilities department where she was responsible for developing community outreach and internal communications plans through traditional media, newsletters, annual reports, events and marketing materials. She also managed the department’s website and social media pages.
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Bachelor of Arts, Communications – Public Relations, California State University San Bernardino
Ruben Gonzalez is Senior Vice President and Managing Director for the FSB Public Affairs Los Angeles office. Prior to joining forces with FSBPA Ruben led strategic consulting firm based in Southern California and serving the entire state of California providing government affairs/advocacy, media relations, crisis communications and political/campaign consulting services.
Ruben’s past and current clients include the DocuSign, United Way of Los Angeles, Delta Airlines, RAI Services, Workday, Sierra Cedar, ESI Development, Information Council of North America, Southern California Gas Company, Parking Company of America, the California Association of Realtors & the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce where Ruben served as Senior Advisor for Strategic Affairs.
Prior to returning to the Consulting world, Ruben served as the Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Political Affairs for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, which is the oldest and largest business association in Southern California. In this role he led all public policy issue development and advocacy for the Chamber. As Senior Advisor Ruben still served as chief advisor to the Chamber’s President & CEO, Board of Directors and senior staff on setting and implementing the organization’s political strategy, and as a spokesperson and chief strategist for general and crisis communications for the organization. Ruben also direct the Chamber sponsored L.A. Jobs PAC scoring an over 80% success record in endorsed races and spending over 4 million in independent expenditure campaigns.
Ruben formerly served as Senior Vice President of External Affairs for The Meruelo Group, a multibillion-dollar consortium of companies involved in hospitality, banking, restaurants and real estate. In this capacity, he was responsible for government affairs, media relations, community outreach, brand management; as well as, political and charitable engagement.
Prior to The Meruelo Group, Ruben was with a LA’s top public affairs firm where he served multiple clients as a lobbyist and ran political and issue campaigns. He also provided media strategy and served as a spokesperson for firm clients. His client portfolio at the firm included Motorola, Westfield, IBM, and many others across all business sectors.
In addition to this private sector experience, Gonzalez has made his mark in the public sector, serving as Deputy City Controller under Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick and he has held positions with the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Governing Board, California Transit Association, former California Assemblyman Lou Correa and former Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter.
He received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and political science from Loyola Marymount University (LMU) where he served as student body president. Gonzalez served as Chair of the board for Helping Young People Excel (HYPE), and is currently on the Board of Directors at LMU’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles and LA’s Best. He was also appointed in 2015 to the California State Controller Council of Economic Advisors and currently serves as Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas’s appointee to the Los Angeles County Local Government Affairs Commission.
Kailey Gaffikin is an Account Coordinator in the FSB Public Affairs Orange County office where she provides support to various client teams and FSBPA employees. Alongside her Account Coordinator role, Kailey serves as Membership Coordinator for the Anaheim Hotel and Lodging Association. Her experience includes event planning and execution, media relations, internal PR content creation, media monitoring, research, and any other projects that come her way. Kailey graduated with a degree in journalism with a focus on public relations and a minor in marketing. Upon graduating, she received the Outstanding Student Leader for Public Relations award. During her time in college, she held 3 leadership positions at Tehama Group Communications, a student-led public relations firm.
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Crystal is a senior level communications and political professional with extensive experience in strategic communications, including earned and paid media, new media, social networking, rapid response and crisis communications. She has also led work focused on fundraising and development, polling, research and activist engagement. She spent 71/2 years on the public policy team at Facebook, in several roles that focused on digital strategy, elections, policy development, and lobbying. Prior to her years with Facebook, Crystal focused on Immigration and Diversity Policy at the Center for American Progress, was a Communications Director for the U.S. Representative Tim Ryan, managing director with Petel & Co., a political consulting firm, and a strategic communications specialist with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. On Hillary Clinton’s historic run for president in 2008, she led digital strategy and content creation for the campaign website and digital engagement with affinity groups. Prior to that, she launched Sen. Edward Kennedy’s first campaign website and digital program to drive message and raise money; in this role, she helped Sen. Kennedy build support around three Supreme Court nominations, the response to Hurricane Katrina, immigration reform and oversight of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She also was part of the team that built out the first digital strategy program at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Originally from northeast Ohio, she currently resides in the Washington, D.C. area.
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Bachelor of Arts, Political Science and Government, Northwestern University
Brian Boeckman is an advertising creative and storytelling specialist. His experience includes creating print and digital advertising campaigns, commercial photography, marketing and branding, web design, podcasting, social media video campaigns, as well as television and film production work.
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Gregory Vistica is Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the FSB Public Affairs’ Washington, D.C. office.
Mr. Vistica provides discreet communication services to Fortune 100, startups, multi-national corporations, and non-profit clients worldwide. A respected crisis management and media turn-around expert, he has led integrated communication campaigns to support and protect public policy goals and corporate and individual reputations that have saved his clients millions of dollars. He advises C-suite executives, general counsels and regulatory officials in leading defense, financial, environmental, water and energy companies.
He was previously Chairman and CEO of Washington Media Group, Inc., an award-winning communications, advocacy, advertising and research firm. A founding member of the firm, Mr. Vistica shaped WMG into one of Washington, D.C.’s most trusted communications companies.
He is an author and former award-winning investigative journalist focusing on national security and the intelligence community. He has worked as a correspondent for Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, as a producer for 60 Minutes, and a staff writer for The San Diego Union-Tribune. With nearly 20 years of journalism experience, he understands the media and is close to the nation’s top editors, reporters, and producers.
The New York Times, in nominating Mr. Vistica for a Pulitzer Prize for exposing Senator Bob Kerrey’s role in a Vietnam massacre, called his work “enterprising reporting at its finest.” In addition to being selected as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in the national reporting category, he has won a Peabody, and a George Polk award for breaking the Tailhook scandal, which led to historic reforms in the military. Polk jurors said his ground-breaking coverage of the Navy made “Tailhook almost as recognizable a code word as Watergate or Teapot Dome.” He was part of the Newsweek team that won a National Magazine Award, was nominated for an Emmy by CBS, received a Heywood Broun honorable mention, and was a finalist in the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists competition. Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) also selected his work for finalist honors in its journalism awards. Brill’s Content described his journalism as “nuanced and meticulous.”
He has written extensively about C.I.A. culture and covert operations in Afghanistan, Haiti, Yugoslavia, and the Middle East, and covered a range of topics from counter-terrorism, transportation and the FBI, to campaign finance irregularities, war crimes, and street gangs in the U.S. military.
He is the author of “The Education of Lieutenant Kerrey,” a book about Senator Kerrey and Vietnam, and “Fall From Glory: The Men Who Sank the U.S. Navy,” a contemporary history. A New York Times review said Fall From Glory was “full of revelations at even the highest levels of power.” The Washington Post said his Kerrey book was a “sobering reminder” about the fog of war, with the Seattle Times saying it “deserves to be read for the valuable lesson it tells about how public-service journalism is crafted.” Michael Ignatieff, the director of Harvard’s program in human rights, said Mr. Vistica’s coverage of Kerrey would be studied in university seminars for years to come.
Mr. Vistica received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations with an emphasis on the intelligence community from San Francisco State University in 1987. He completed Masters course work there in journalism and international relations in 1988.
He was also a staff assistant to Rep. Tom Lantos, (D-CA). A native of the San Francisco Peninsula, Mr. Vistica lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family.
Kate Lilly is an Account Executive based in the Austin, Texas office of FSB Public Affairs. Kate assists with campaigns, polling, media relations, legislative research, and government relations. Prior to joining the FSB Team, Kate interned in the U.S. Senate for Senator John Boozman out of Arkansas. Kate has a B.A. in Political Science with minors in History and Legal Studies from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
For more than 20 years, Andrew has been at the forefront of political affairs, campaign strategy and outreach; following a string of learning experiences on behalf of Democratic U.S. Senate candidates in the deep red South – and peppered with a stint working labor relations and small business policy for Business Roundtable in Washington, D.C. – Andrew was instrumental in Claire McCaskill’s (D-MO) successful 2006 senatorial campaign. When subsequently asked by the DCCC to help lead a Northern California congressional race, he fell in love with California and made it his home.
Over the next 12 years working both with his own political advisory firm AMF Strategies and with the California Alliance for Jobs – a labor-management coalition of Laborers, Operating Engineers and Carpenters unions as well heavy infrastructure contractors – Andrew has overseen every part of the political process involved in realizing a successful ballot measure. While specializing in county- and city-wide ballot initiatives, Andrew also helped lead the successful state-wide efforts to pass Prop 1&2 (2014) and defeat Prop 6 (2018).
Experience:
14 years in California politics including federal and local candidate campaigns and state-wide and local ballot initiatives.
10+ years with the California Alliance for Jobs, a labor-management construction industry partnership, directing legislative policy and local and state-wide campaign oversight.
Led efforts for successful transportation ballot measures totaling more than $25 billion in primary funding since 2014, including:
Alameda County (Measure BB)
Sacramento County (Measure B)
Santa Cruz County (Measure D)
Stanislaus County (Measure L)
Monterey County (Measure X)
Santa Clara County (Measure B)
Placer County (Measure M)
Contra Costa Co. (Measure X)
City of San Jose (Measure T)
San Mateo County (Measure W)
Marin County (Measure AA)
BART (Measure RR)
Led successful legislative strategy to pass the state-wide water bond and rainy-day fund and subsequent state-wide campaigns (2014 Prop 1&2).
Advisory board member for a number of business start-ups including Chilean skincare line, SLC-based tech and Silicon Valley delivery service expansion.
Directed labor relations and health care legislative strategy for Business Roundtable in Washington, D.C.
Helped lead three Democratic U.S. Senate campaigns and one House race in deep red territory.
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Kylie is a recent graduate with a background in public relations and marketing. She has experience in social media outreach campaigns, event coordination and content development. Kylie provides general account support to various FSBPA clients and assists with media monitoring, email marketing, coalition building, and grassroots and stakeholder mapping.
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Ash Wright, is a nationally recognized political strategist. His long and successful career has led him to serve as the chief strategist for campaigns in fifteen states, and Puerto Rico. Wright is also a frequent contributor on the Fox News Chanel, Fox Business Network, and MSNBC. Wright gained national notoriety in 2016 by playing a significant role in winning re-election for Senator Pat Toomey and running the grassroots effort for the Republican National Committee/President Trump’s campaign in Pennsylvania.
In 2017, Wright was nominated for four Reed Awards for Campaign & Elections, winning Best Paid Grassroots Program for his efforts in winning Pennsylvania for Republicans. During the 2018 elections, he managed campaigns in eight states, including six highly contested congressional campaigns. In addition, Wright was named to the 2019 40 under 40 class by the National Association of Political Consultants.
In addition, Wright serves as the Senior Political Advisor to George P. Bush (son of Gov. Jeb Bush, nephew of President George W. Bush and Grandson of President George H.W. Bush). He has led Bush’s campaign since 2014, including the recent 2018 re-election campaign for Texas Land Commissioner.
Wright has been instrumental in growing the Republican Party’s diverse slate of candidates, including the historical campaign to Elect Susana Martinez as the first Hispanic female Governor in our nation’s history.
Industry Awards:
Class of 2019 American Association of Political Consultants ‘Top 40 under 40’
Reed Awards: Best Use of Paid Field Program (2016 cycle)
Reed Awards: Best Grassroots Project (2018 cycle)
Nominated for Reed Awards: Best Use of Paid Field Program (2018 cycle)
Experience:
Senior Political Advisor, Commissioner George P. Bush
Deputy Director of Government Relations, Texas General Land Office
Political Director, Republican Party of Texas
Victory Director, New Mexico Republican Party
Managing Director, Grassroots Program for Senator Pat Toomie
Texas Director, Jeb Bush for President
Executive Director, Texas Republican County Chairman’s Association
Education:
Master of Arts, Management and Leadership, Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia
Bachelor of Science, Political Science and Church Ministry, Hardin-Simmons University
Citlalli Vazquez is an Account Coordinator based in our Southern California office. She works with our Public Relations and Public Affairs practices assisting with various communication and research efforts. As a Criminology, Law, and Society major her areas of interest include socio-legal studies. Ms. Vazquez’s passions include community building, problem solving, and skill building.
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Education:
Bachelor of Arts, Criminology, Law, and Society – University of California, Irvine
Over the past 20 years, John has played important roles on political, public affairs and corporate social responsibility campaigns across the country and internationally including helping to pioneer domestic and international digital advocacy strategies for foreign governments, fortune 100 companies and international nonprofit organizations. Most recently, John was a managing director leading the public affairs practice for Group SJR, a New York digital strategy firm owned by WPP. Previously, he ran the Washington D.C. office for the California Department of Education, advised legislative leadership on policy and political strategy and lobbied for the California Chamber of Commerce.
Experience:
Originally from Oklahoma, Ryan has worked on behalf of some of the toughest political and public affairs campaigns throughout the country. His experience in moving the needle is invaluable for anyone looking to win in today’s tough political climate.
In 2004, Ryan was a regional political and financial services director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee helping to go 4/4 with special elections. That work in 2004 helped lay the groundwork for the House to turn Democratic in 2006. After two successful cycles at Democratic voter contact firms, Ryan founded and was the President of the AAPC Pollie Award Winding Creek Group from 2009-2020. His work with the Democratic National Committee Analytics team and the Obama for America 2012 Analytics Team revolutionized political calling leading Caroline Grey, OFA Director of Operations for Analytics to say, “Their work on our tracking polls and modeling ID’s was integral to our success on Election Day. We’ve worked with them through vocabulary changes in ‘data’, ‘targeting’ and ‘analytics’ and will continue our relationship with them wherever we go.” Very few people bring the depth of knowledge and value-added approach Ryan will bring to your project.
In addition to his political resume, Ryan is an expert at land-use project management as well as corporate communications. Whether it’s gaining approval for wind turbines in Oklahoma, fighting to block a coal plant in South Dakota or helping navigate out of a media crisis in Missouri, Ryan has the expertise along with the experience to back it up to solve all of your corporate communication needs.
Along with his daughter and her dog, Ryan lives in St. Louis, Missouri where they both enjoy attending Cardinals baseball games even though he is a die-hard Dodgers fan but he has finally given up on her being one as well.
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Richard Hernandez provides strategic communications and field consulting services to clients in politics. His expertise includes content creation; strategic writing; research and analysis; field operations administration; media relations; and social media management.
A veteran of political campaigns, Richard has previously worked as a Campaign Manager, Communications Director, Deputy Communications
A native of Temecula, CA, he now resides in Las Vegas, NV. He is an avid foodie, musician, and collector of vintage campaign paraphernalia.
Education:
BA in Political Science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Chasen Bullock is Vice President for Public Affairs and Campaigns at FSB Core Strategies. Chasen has worked in 29 states and has managed winning political campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels. Along with managing political campaigns, Chasen has expertise in nonprofit management, strategic communications, media relations, grassroots organizing, and issue advocacy. He has significant experience working on the following issues: health care, small business, and conservative causes. Bullock is in the United States Congressional Record for his work with Congressman Luke Messer (IN-06).
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Bachelor of Arts, Economics – California State University, San Marcos
Brooke has over eight years of experience working in government and public affairs. She’s an Account Supervisor in the FSB Public Affairs, Inc. (FSBPA) Orange County office and assists in management of coalition building, community outreach, and provides legislative and political support for a multitude of clients. She currently serves as the Legislative and Operations Director for the Anaheim / Orange County Hotel and Lodging Association. She also provides public affairs support in matters of Land Use Policy, Transportation, Development, Energy, Public Safety and Environmental Policy.
Before joining FSBPA, Brooke served two legislative sessions as a lobbyist in Arizona, working mostly on legislation to benefit first responders and public safety. She also worked at a nationwide nonprofit specializing in management of their grassroots teams.
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